S. Korea's bus drivers call off strike to avoid stranding commuters

SEOUL (AFP) - Bus drivers in South Korea called off a threatened national strike on Thursday, staging only a brief walkout so as to avoid stranding millions of commuters, union officials said.

Bus services in Seoul and other cities returned to normal for the morning rush hour after the two-hour walkout that began at 4:30am local time (3:30am Singapore on Wednesday).

"Drivers do not want to cause such great inconvenience to commuters. Children had to go to school and company employees were fretful about arriving late for work," national bus union spokesman Oh Ji Seop said..

The union had threatened an indefinite strike to protest against a parliamentary bill that would recognise taxis as public transport. The bill would accord taxi drivers new tax benefits and allow them to drive in bus-only lanes.